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OK - took it to the alignment shop. Guy tells me passenger tie-rod doesn't have enough turns to adjust. Drivers side adjusted well, but passenger he says needs another 5 turns or so.. saw it, and yup tie rod is aaaaall the way in. machine showed a -9 value so it looks severely off. My steering wheel is also pointing at 10-11 oclock when going straight...

anyone run into this problem before? guy told me to try to cut another 5-10 turns to be safe using a die.. which i can do butttt.. that's not the point. From what I've read, M3 control arm bushings only affect caster and shouldnt have any influence on toe.

ok So the steering is supossed to be centered before starting?
what are the steps to do an alignment? It's one of those mystery topics for me hehe I've taken down trannys but never dug around alignments...

so steps to do an alignment.. anyone?

steering was pointing at 10-11 o clock when riding straight, before the taking it to shop. It could have been that when they lifted the car on the rails obviously the wheels will be straight (thus the steering was crooked to begin with..).

I would find it strange for it to be the shop though... online they have like almost perfect reviews that's why i took it there. It's kind of in the hood, but it's one of those shops that that's ALL they do ALL day long so I even made the special trip there.

Anyone else.. ever run into this problem? What would you recommend as a next step?

I will follow your advise and take it to another shop.. it's just so whacky. Car's never been in an accident.. seems like adjusting Toe is a rather simple procedure, screw in/out. How much skill can this actually take..?
Pardon me if I sound utterly ignorant, but from what I've read, only real adjustable value in the e30 is toe sooooo.. yeah. It's just puzzling. Plus I dumped 60 bucks.. agh.

An alignment machine is only as good as it's operator. If the person doing your alignment didn't know to center the wheel before starting, he didn't know what he was doing, period. That's the first lesson in Alignment 101.

I will follow your advise and take it to another shop.. it's just so whacky. Car's never been in an accident.. seems like adjusting Toe is a rather simple procedure, screw in/out. How much skill can this actually take..?
Pardon me if I sound utterly ignorant, but from what I've read, only real adjustable value in the e30 is toe sooooo.. yeah. It's just puzzling. Plus I dumped 60 bucks.. agh.

Are hunter machines any good at alignments? Thats what the guy used.

Most don't do it by hand, most are done by machines. Although the machine should adjust the toe, like the post above me states; the operator must first center the wheel prior to adjustment.

4 or so years ago when i still had shops align my vehicles i had the exact same thing happen on my datsun after i replaced all the suspension components. Politely told the guy to go F. himself took my car home and aligned it myself

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Built 325e too much to list, Heavily modified Jeep, Datsun about to get a 351, and now a 528i